Seattle to Aberdeen

Aberdeen Travel Blog

This was my least favourite day of the trip. Cycling out of Seattle was a nightmare due to very busy roads. I also rode through an industrial area which resulted in very poor road surfaces, lots of big lorries and lots of train track running at all sorts of angles across the road. It was only a few weeks earlier that I had crashed on some train tracks in the French Alps so I was very nervous about these and slowed right down for each crossing.

I followed route 99 out of Seattle then got onto Interstate 5. I was kicked off this by the police fairly soon after joining it as apparently cyclists were not allowed on the section I was on. So far there had been signs to say so but either there weren't any or I had missed them. I just kept asking people for directions to the next city on route to my final destination, Aberdeen. I ended up following S Tacoma way through Tacoma and then the Pacific highway, which rejoined I5 where I was allowed back on. I followed I5 to Olympia then turned off onto highway 101, then route 8 then 12 to Aberdeen. There was supposed to be a youth hostel in Aberdeen but nobody there, including the tourist information had ever heard of it so I ended up in a motel. The whole town looked very run down so maybe the youth hostel had long gone and the website I looked at was out of date.